The Charge

"Darn, Darn, Darn!"—Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne)

Opening Statement

Based on Universal's classic monster properties, The Munsters is
easily one of the best-remembered sitcoms of the 1960s; it was a smash hit that
transplanted a ghoulish family of creature feature stars to the wilds of
suburbia. Debuting in 1964 and lasting for two seasons, the series balanced
wholesomely silly schlock with enough clever satire of traditional family shows
like Father Knows Best to appeal to kids and adults alike. Just a short
year after the well-received first season DVD set of the show was released,
Universal has invited us for a return trip to 1313 Mockingbird Lane for The
Munsters: The Complete Second Season.

Facts of the Case

The Munsters are a pretty average suburban family a lot like yours or mine,
except maybe for the fact that they all resemble horrible creatures inspired by
the Universal monster movies of the '30s and '40s. Munster patriarch Herman
(Fred Gwynne, My Cousin Vinny) and
his wife Lily (Yvonne De Carlo, The
Ten Commandments) bear a striking resemblance to Frankenstein's Monster and
his Bride, while their feral son, Eddie (Butch Patrick, The Phantom
Tollbooth) is a budding little Wolfman in short pants. Living with them is
Lily's father, Grandpa (Al Lewis, The Boatniks), a descendent of Dracula
who is always at work on another insane project in his basement laboratory.
Rounding out the frightful brood is the Munsters' niece Marilyn (Pat Priest,
Some Call It Loving), an "unfortunate" teenager not graced with
a monstrous mug like her relatives. In spite of their unique appearances,
though, the Munsters aren't out to kill, maim, and torture torch-bearing 19th
Century villagers—they're just trying to get along in their middle-class
suburban world like everybody else.

The Munsters: The Complete Second Season features all 32 second
season episodes on three double sided DVDs, all stuffed inside Herman's
cardboard noggin. Here's what you get:

The Evidence

In the mid-1960s, North America's obsession with the all things fiendishly
funny reached its apex, with the classic Universal monsters achieving an
unprecedented kind of pop icon status. Suddenly, there were monster toys,
monster model kits, monster collector cards, monster magazines, and monster rock
'n' rock novelty albums by the truckload, all offering humorous takes on
Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Mummy, and the Wolfman. It was a fad
quickly picked up on by the television networks, with two different
horror-themed sitcoms going into production almost simultaneously in
1964—ABC's The Addams Family, based on macabre drawings by
cartoonist Charles Addams, and The Munsters, CBS' more conventional
expression of creature feature mania that wedged several famous monsters of film
land into tried-and-true sitcom mechanics.

While The Addams Family often seemed more concerned with staying
aesthetically true to Addams's drawings than in offering the monster puns and
third-rate Karloff impressions that were so incredibly popular at the time,
The Munsters went barreling towards some of the most unpretentious
slapstick silliness you would hope for in a far-fetched fantasy series. Often
resembling a live action cartoon, the show was really more about generating
laughs than it was its absurd premise, with the talented comic team of Gwynne
and Lewis delivering a frightful send-up of both monster culture and sitcom
banality. Combining slapstick, putrid puns, and some of the most hackneyed
plotting ever seen, the show soared on Gwynne's expressive features and Lewis'
buoyant enthusiasm. The Munsters is an often stupid, decidedly low-brow
show, yes, but even today it remains a strangely charming period piece that gets
by on the well-established chemistry apparent between the gifted lead
actors.

After a highly successful first year on the small screen, The
Munsters came back in 1965 for another 30-odd shows in what would eventually
be its last season. Not opting to mess with a successful formula, these episodes
continue much in the vein of the previous season, with lots of extremely typical
plots built around mistaken identity, Herman trying to fulfill Eddie's boasts,
and Herman's on-the-job woes. Those who noticed the premise of the show wearing
thin on the first DVD season box set will find plenty of contrivance, including
a Munster riff on Cyrano de Bergerac, an episode in which Herman's
identical cousin Johann arrives from Europe, and perhaps corniest of all,
"A House Divided," in which Herman draws a white line down the middle
of the house and makes Grandpa stay on one side. Still, there are some great
episodes included here, including "Zombo," a unique show that has
Eddie Munster meet the prevailing monster culture head on when he gets to appear
on The Zombo Show, a B-movie showcase presented by horror host Zombo.
"Will Success Spoil Herman Munster?" is a suspiciously
Flintstones-esque story about Herman becoming a rock 'n' roll star, which
also provides some cute moments as the budding Elvis' ego runs rampant.

All in all, it's a generally good—but still patchy—season for
the Munster clan, with occasional lackluster writing indicating that the show
was indeed on its last pair of vampire batwings. Of course, The Munsters
was really just a novelty anyways, a one joke twist on the standard sitcom
template, so there was little surprise when the bottom suddenly fell out of the
monster market in 1965 to make room for Batman, an equally campy slice of
TV fun that had kids tossing aside their Dragula dinky cars for plastic utility
belts and Batarangs. Like their close rivals in weirdness, The Addams
Family, The Munsters simply packed up and left the neighborhood at
the end of the year, concluding an era marked by one of North America's more
curious pop culture obsessions.

Good news for those who were impressed with Universal's presentation of
The Munsters: The Complete First Season: these episodes look and sound
just as good. Dust and debris is kept to a minimum, and soundtrack is a solid
mono mix that delivers nicely. The biggest improvement is in the extras
department, though—while The Munsters: The Complete First Season
was a barebones set, fans will be pleased to find a wealth of bonus material on
this new season. A release from Image Entertainment, entitled The Munsters:
The First Family of Fright was originally slated to hit shelves last year as
a two-disc release of supplemental material, but it was pulled from shelves
after Universal decided that they might like to release those extras themselves.
As a result, the bulk (but not all) of the planned Image disc is presented here,
four 45-minute documentaries culled from A&E's Biography program.
First up is "The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright," a
thorough overview of the show and its cultural relevancy, followed by the poorly
named but bittersweet Fred Gwynne: More than a Munster. Yvonne
DeCarlo: Gilded Lily focuses on the Canadian-born actress and her many high
profile romances, while Al Lewis: Forever Grandpa depicts Lewis' colorful
life after The Munsters, including his candidacy for the Governor of New
York. All four documentary presentations provide a nice accompaniment to the
episodes on the set, even of they're a little overdramatic in the typical
Biography style.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The only conceivable problem with this set is Universal's odd packaging. What
you get here is a plastic sleeve that houses a rather flimsy cardboard replica
of Herman Munster's cubic cranium, which in turn folds out giving you access to
the discs, which are stuck on jewel case trays glued inside. Visually, it's
weirdly wonderful—a wholly appropriate DVD case that is worthy of display,
but practically, it's a little cheap, with a too-tight slipcase that is causing
problems for many consumers (although I'll admit my difficulties have been
pretty minimal). With this set and the debacle over Homer's cut-rate plastic
head that held the last season of The Simpsons DVDs, I don't know whether
studios will bother with this gimmick much longer, as nice as they look.

Closing Statement

Although this set officially concludes Universal's collected episodes of
The Munsters, the show's residual popularity propelled it well beyond the
original 70-episode run. Like the Universal monsters they emulated, Herman,
Lily, and Grandpa became horror icons of their own, and were resurrected
countless times for movies, TV specials, cartoons, and even a "new
generation" spin-off. Real fans know that it all started with the original
show, though, and they will definitely want to pick this set up and finally
complete their collection of The Munsters on DVD.

The Verdict

Not guilty—a frighteningly first class show.

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